Friday, January 18, 2013

I totally didn't capitalize the title of this post because I was blanking on which words to capitalize. In fact, I don't even know if capitalize is spelled correctly. Where did my brain go? Which is a take on one of my daughter's favorite games, Where Did My Hand Go?

Book #5 is back in the hands of my beloved editor. There was a funny period, though, where I could not, for the life of me, name the main love interest. There were many things complicating the matter, but picking a name for anyone is hard. People will complain about anything these days, and I know there was a whole thing a while back (or maybe it's still going on) where people were bitching about the weird names in books. Like, why can't characters just have normal names? My answer to that is: because when you get to write a book, you get to name people that aren't real so you might as well be silly about it. I think Stephenie Meyer did a bang up job with some of her character names. I don't mean Edward and Jacob (perfectly nice, normal names), but Emmett and Jasper. I love those names! In fact, I met a manatee at Epcot Center that was also named Jasper! Who came first?

I finally settled on the main dude's name: Leo. That was a suggestion from my editor. We had a funny name discussion, which I thoroughly enjoyed. But I'm not asking for your opinion on the name. I learned about that when it came time for me to name my daughter. Other pregnant people told me they wouldn't share their baby names before their kids were born, mostly because people were so judgmental that they ruined the joy of the name. I figured out, once I knew we were naming the kiddo Romy, that if I told people, "Her name is Romy," instead of "We are going to name her Romy," there was nothing they could say. You can't tell someone they have a stupid name once they already have it. Not that Romy is, or ever was, a stupid name. I stand by it being the greatest name EVA. And I like Leo a lot, too. I just hope it fits the character. I guess that's one of the differences between naming a baby (or even a pet) and a character: the baby has yet to become that name, while the character has already been written and, thus, needs to fit the name.

Next up: the title of the book. I'm thinking of going with "Jasper the Fun-Loving Manatee." What do you think?

Friday, January 11, 2013

I have started a million blog posts and never finished them. Since I stopped blogging regularly, it's been really hard to get back into it. Kind of like exercising. So I'm going to ease back in with some of my favorite things as of late. Mind you, it's nothing classy. I don't have time for classy. Between rewrites of my next novel (a tough one that has taken me forever to finish. I mean, is STILL taking me forever to finish) and the poorly paying job of MOM, I pretty much wear the same pair of jeans everyday. Here are the few pieces of "culture" I have managed to fit in:

Supernatural - I have been looking for a show to fit the Buffy-shaped hole in my life since it went off the air. Battlestar Galactica more than filled that last year, in the high quality, amazing writing, acting, and stories department. Sniff. In my parallel life where I get to re-watch TV shows, I'm watching Battlestar Galactica right now. But BSG was pretty intense. So intense, actually, that as the show was nearing its final episodes I had to stop watching. I just couldn't let it end. It was somewhat pathetic. [Side note: the reason I started watching BSG was because of a Portlandia episode where the characters started watching BSG and couldn't stop watching. Then they found someone who they thought was the show's creator to write more episodes. Insanely hilarious.] Supernatural is not quite the caliber of writing and storytelling, but it's rather adorable. I like the hilarious brother antics, and of course the otherworldly big bads. I am only on Season 4, so if you happen to comment about the show, NO SPOILERS. Um, also, I bought a Supernatural calendar.

Ke$ha "Warrior" - You know I love Ke$ha. I hope I always do. I hope she continues to make music that makes me happy, semi-embarrassed, want to dance, and reminds me of my hilarious college self forever.

Buffy: The Making of a Slayer - Dang, I love Buffy. This book has all sorts of background skinny on the show. It came in a silly book box, which now houses a variety of my daughter's toys. And the book is a little too heavy to read it bed. Or carry around in my purse. Still mega awesome.

I realize that's only three favorites, but I'm going to start there. It's like a brisk walk on the treadmill for twenty minutes. Or maybe a saunter and just for ten. Whatever. It's a start. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to get on my actual treadmill and watch the Winchester boys.

About Me

I'm the author of Maternity Leave (St, Martin's Press), five teen novels (Get Well Soon, Into the Wild Nerd Yonder, Don't Stop Now, Have a Nice Day, and The F-It List, all from Feiwel and Friends), and one children's picture book, Toby and the Snowflakes (Houghton Mifflin). I am also a sugar addict.